So many people look at the Avoca carrot cake recipe I decided it was time I tried another carrot cake. I like some dried fruit in my carrot cake although I realise many people don’t. Rachel Allen’s recipe from her Bake cookbook has sultana’s in it. The cake was lovely and moist, and kept for several days but the icing was too soft and looked a bit unappetising (I think my butter was a bit too soft). There was about twice as much icing as I wanted although that was probably because it was too soft to spread thickly (and Jon always has a grumble about icing being too sweet so I tend to be nervous about applying it thickly).
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 140ml (5fl oz) vegetable oil
- 200g (7oz) soft light brown sugar
- 300g (11oz) grated carrot (weight when grated)
- 100g (3 ½ oz) raisins
- 75g (3oz) pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)
- 180g (6 ½ oz) self-raising flour
- Pinch of salt
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- ½ tsp mixed spice
For the orange cream cheese icing
- 250g (9oz) cream cheese (straight from the fridge)
- 50g (2oz) butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 275g (10oz) icing sugar, sifted
- Finely grated zest of 1 orange
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150oC (300oF), Gas mark 2.
- Oil and line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper.
- Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot, raisins and chopped nuts.
- Sift in the dry ingredients and bring the mixture together using a wooden spoon or large metal spoon.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin, smooth the surface and bake in the oven for 1-1 ¼ hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before removing. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.
- To make the icing, beat the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl until combined. Add the vanilla extract, icing sugar and finely grated orange zest and mix to combine. The icing sugar should be smooth and quite thick. Using a palette knife, spread the icing evenly over the cooled cake,
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